Ceres’ bright spots looking less like alien cities in new photo … oh, well

Highest resolution photos yet of the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres show a complex of material that looks a lot like reflective residue such as salt or something like it, though the agency hasn’t made a ruling yet.

Here’s the new higher-res photo in a zoomable format (details in gallery below):

However, the spots do look a lot less like ice lakes or “ice rinks” and they definitely look a lot less like our personal favorite: Alien civilization. But, as we said, NASA is waiting for more data …

“Dawn has transformed what was so recently a few bright dots into a complex and beautiful, gleaming landscape,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer and mission director based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “Soon, the scientific analysis will reveal the geological and chemical nature of this mysterious and mesmerizing extraterrestrial scenery.”

The scale of the scene is pretty amazing. In some places, the rim of the “Occator crater is almost vertical in some places, where it rises steeply for 1 mile (nearly 2 kilometers).” That would be an amazing sight: Standing at the base of the rim and looking nearly straight up … for a mile. Cool.

The agency also published a 3D tour of the crater. Here are some stills and other 3D work by the agency and a citizen scientist we’ve been conversing with.